{"id":70212,"date":"2017-07-15T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=70212"},"modified":"2019-01-22T03:54:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T11:54:33","slug":"greyson-fletcher-surf-skate-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/greyson-fletcher-surf-skate-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Greyson Fletcher Surf Skate Style"},"content":{"rendered":"
SURF SKATE STYLE WITH GREYSON FLETCHER<\/a>.<\/strong>\nINTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY<\/a>.<\/strong>\nPHOTO BY AFFIF.<\/strong><\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
Hey, Greyson. What are you up to?<\/strong> <\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to Woodward, me and Alex Sorgente. We\u2019re going to do a little mini ramp contest up there.<\/p>\n
Oh, the mini ramp contest with Ryan Clements.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019s the mini ramp thing.<\/p>\n
You and Alex are going up there? It\u2019s on!<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019s on! I was just telling Alex that they better not make me and him skate together first thing. That\u2019s lame.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll just have to be like, \u201cI\u2019ll be there in a little while.\u201d Then you can go separately.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Exactly. How do they do that? Do they draw names or something?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how that thing works. It looks cool though. That should be fun.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It will be funny for sure. They\u2019ve got a tiny little mini ramp.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s a 5-footer, so you can do all kinds of fucked up shit on it.<\/strong><\/p>\n
That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
Okay, we\u2019re doing a surf skate story, so I have a few questions. When did you first hear of surf skate style?<\/strong><\/p>\n
When I was growing up, I\u2019d always hear it from my grandpa. It was ever since I was six or seven or so. Even my uncle would say that sometimes. Maybe my dad did too, but my dad was more into skating then. He would always tell people he was a skater. [Laughs] My uncle was all into surfing at that age and my dad was all into skating. My grandpa was more into surfing. My grandpa would always take me on snowboard trips when I was a little kid. He\u2019d bring me up to Colorado and we\u2019d go to Mammoth a lot. It was sick. Everything kind of revolved around surfing first. Even with skateboarding and snowboarding, my grandpa was like, \u201cYou want to be able to snowboard in powder and do carves like surfing. If you go skating, you want to be able to carve around like you\u2019re surfing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s rad. I talked to your grandpa a few days ago and he\u2019s so cool. So let me ask you what surf skate style means to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Being able to carve the bowl, instead of just tic-tacing around and doing air after air. It would be like carving a bowl or being able to carve anything and pump around and flow around and grind everything, grind all the corners, and do ollies wherever you want, over hips, and skate everything.<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s pretty dead on right there. You nailed it. Okay, in your opinion, who has good surf skate style?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, first I\u2019m going to have to say that John <\/span>Florence has the best skate surf style, guaranteed 100%. My uncle and my dad have good style too. Bruce Irons has good surf skate style too. I\u2019m starting out with surfing because there\u2019s more skate surf style going on there now. For the skate surf style, it\u2019s Nate Fletcher, my dad, John Florence, and Bruce Irons. I think those are the main skate surfer guys that are approaching surfing with more of a skate style. They\u2019re doing big airs and they have kind of a more relaxed skate style going on. They have that thing where the upper body is not moving as much as all the other surfers. From the waist up, they\u2019re a little more stiff than most surfers. Most surfers turn their shoulders and their hips. If you notice, with my dad and Nate and Bruce, they\u2019re a little more stiff upper body. I think they get that influence from skating. Even when they\u2019re getting tubed, they stand straight up tall and more parallel with the wave. They might call me out on that, but that\u2019s what I think. With skating, it\u2019s harder to find now because of all the street stuff coming in. It\u2019s more like Hosoi back in the day, and some of the older guys. With this <\/span>generation, you\u2019ve got Alex Sorgente and Curren Caples and Pedro Barros and that whole crew that have a surf skating style too.<\/p>\n
Yeah. Some of the really young kids are getting that surf skate style from starting out in the skateparks now too.<\/strong><\/p>\n
You know what\u2019s funny is that grinding a big handrail is more like surfing than anything else to me. It\u2019s a trip. I\u2019ve never dropped in on a really big wave but, to me, grinding a big handrail feels like you\u2019re dropping into a big wave. You\u2019re going straight down the thing fast and you\u2019re going, \u201cFuck! I really hope I don\u2019t fall.\u201d It\u2019s weird. Grinding a rail feels almost like you\u2019re floating on water to me because your wheels aren\u2019t on the ground. You\u2019re sliding. When you\u2019re rolling on the ground, that takes away every feeling of surfing out of skateboarding, for me, as opposed to <\/span>grinding on a rail. It\u2019s kind of like the same feeling as taking off and going straight on a wave. When you\u2019re grinding a big rail, your board just smashes into the kinks and it\u2019s like hitting chop or bumps on a wave.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s so crazy. I would never even think about it like that.<\/strong><\/p>\n
No one ever thinks that. They all just try to tell me I\u2019m crazy. They say skating a bowl would be more like surfing, but honestly it doesn\u2019t feel anything like it at all. If anything, snowboarding feels more like surfing than skateboarding, but grinding a handrail skateboarding feels more like surfing. You\u2019re just gliding. It\u2019s like gliding across the water except you\u2019re gliding across metal.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no friction almost and you\u2019re gaining speed.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. Then when you\u2019re hitting kinks, like a double kinked rail, you\u2019re smashing through the thing like it\u2019s a bump on the face of a wave. It\u2019s crazy. Your feet kind of get jumbled up around your board and your board is shaking around. It definitely feels like hitting bumps on the face of a wave. It\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s pretty sick.<\/p>\n
I would have never put those two things together, but now that you have, I get it.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s trippy, right? It makes sense but it doesn\u2019t make sense. Most people would never get that. You can\u2019t feel your wheels on the ground, so it\u2019s like you\u2019re floating. When you\u2019re surfing, you feel like you\u2019re floating too. When your wheels are on the ground, it takes everything away from the feeling that you\u2019re surfing. You can feel yourself rolling, so it\u2019s a different feeling.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re gripped, so you can control your slides and control your board too.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. When you turn on a surfboard, you\u2019re using your rail to turn and, in skating, you\u2019re using your trucks. When you skateboard, and then surf a whole bunch and you stop skating for a while and then you go back to skateboarding, it almost feels like you\u2019re not turning. It feels like your board is just going straight almost. You\u2019re not turning on your rail, so it doesn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re really turning. I mean, you\u2019re still turning, but you\u2019re not turning that well. You\u2019re not really using your board to turn. In surfing and snowboarding, you\u2019re using your rails to turn and you\u2019re going rail to rail. In skateboarding, you\u2019re pivoting off the baseplates on your trucks, so that feels completely different.<\/p>\n
This is the best description yet.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Your skateboard is small and heavy and your surfboard is big and light. Snowboards are big and light too. Snowboarding feels a lot more like surfing, just carving. It\u2019s pretty sick, especially when you hit a berm. It feels so good. I always wished I could surf like I snowboard and I could just snap it like I do on my snowboard.<\/p>\n
Well, snowboarding in powder, there\u2019s a whole other level too.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. It\u2019s sick. You get the same effect too. You\u2019re spraying snow and you\u2019re spraying water. It\u2019s kind of the same thing. I like to see it explode. In surfing, you see the lip explode and in snowboarding, you see snow exploding everywhere. It\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s frozen water versus unfrozen water. It has the exact same properties. With <\/span>skateboarding, every once in a while you\u2019ll get some coping dust.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s like chalk. With snowboarding and surfing, there will be so much water that you can\u2019t even see what\u2019s going on sometimes. I\u2019m not claiming that I can do a turn like that surfing, but water   <\/span>definitely gets in your face. In snowboarding, snow is just everywhere. With skateboarding, you might get a little pebble here and there off the coping sometimes, if you\u2019re lucky. That\u2019s just what I\u2019ve thought over the years from surfing and skating and snowboarding. Trip on that, dude. I\u2019ve been thinking about it forever.<\/p>\n
You were kind of born into it too. Okay, here\u2019s another one. How has surfing influenced skateboarding and how has skateboarding influenced surfing?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I\u2019d say that skateboarding definitely influenced surfing by bringing more technical and advanced tricks to surfing. Surfing created skateboarding, but skateboarding is evolving surfing. It\u2019s pretty self-explanatory, but I\u2019ll give you an example. <\/span>People weren\u2019t doing airs on surfboards before people were skating. No. There\u2019s no way. Airs were first in skating and then my dad was doing airs. My dad and Jason Jessee were always skating together and they were doing airs. Then my dad was doing airs on surfboards. Airs were first in skateboarding. Surfing may have created <\/span>skateboarding, but skateboarding and skateboarders evolutionized surfing. Also, surfing helps your skating a lot. It helps smooth out your style and brings more power to your skating. It makes you think about skating in a whole different way. If you\u2019re skating tranny especially, you\u2019re going to think about it differently. You\u2019re going to have more power and more speed and you\u2019re going to do more carving and more grinding. Instead of just doing backside air after backside air like a lot of the vert guys, you\u2019re trying to do long smith grinds through the corner or you\u2019re trying to grind every corner you can and grind every hip and hit the weird stuff. You take weird and unpredictable lines.<\/p>\n
Yeah. Do you think that surf skate style is <\/span>important today?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s important for me because my family grew up surfing and it\u2019s been around me since I was a little kid and it\u2019s going to be around my kids one day and it\u2019s already around Nate\u2019s kids. I was just born into it because my family is a bunch of surfers. A lot of guys out there, like Pedro and Alex and Curren, are starting to skate a lot more like that for sure. It\u2019s definitely surf skate style. Surfing is definitely influencing skateboarding and skateboarding is definitely influencing surfing. With guys like John John and Bruce Irons and Nate Fletcher and my dad just getting barreled and  <\/span>coming out and blasting airs, watching guys like that makes you want to get out of the water and go skateboarding. It looks like they\u2019re having so much fun. I think that the airs that surfers are doing now are gnarlier than the airs that <\/span>skateboarders are doing now, so we have to come back again, boys! Look at John John\u2019s alley-oop! I don\u2019t give a fuck what people say. Surfing airs are really dialed in right now. John John\u2019s alley-oops are crazy. They are off axis, no grab, almost like snowboarding, like strapped in.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s nuts, right? You can slide off a surfboard so much easier than a snowboard, and with skateboards, we have griptape.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I think once you get used to it, you can handle it better. A lot of that comes into play because the board is long and it\u2019s light and it gets caught by the wind pretty easily. With certain wind directions, it can stick the board to your feet and, if you know what you\u2019re doing, you can have your board stuck to your feet so good.<\/p>\n
You have to deal with the environmental aspects to get there in surfing. With  <\/span>skating, it\u2019s a different game altogether.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. It\u2019s crazy. With skating, it\u2019s whatever you\u2019re more comfortable with. Your skateboard is heavy though and it\u2019s almost kind of awkward to do airs with. A surfboard is more aerodynamic and the skateboard just kind of clunks in the air and that\u2019s why you see a lot of guys grabbing. Surfboards keep updating and getting newer technology, but skateboards have just stayed the same mold for a while. I\u2019m happy. I like my old wooden skateboard. Call me dumb or naive or whatever. I think <\/span>skateboards now are as good as they\u2019re going to get. I think skateboards are not going to get better. Carbon fiber and bamboo, everyone has tried that. The skateboard material and shape we have right now seems to have reached its peak. I\u2019m just going to stick with my good old wooden skateboard. With surfboards, you can do so many different things. With skateboards, look at our wheels. We\u2019ve had the same formula for wheels forever. Look at the surfboard. They have stock plastic ones, and there\u2019s fiberglass and carbon fiber in boards now in different spots.<\/p>\n
What about the stuff your dad is doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s sick. It\u2019s like a carbon fiber mix. I don\u2019t even know what it is, but it\u2019s insane what my dad is doing. Those boards won\u2019t break. It seems like that kind of innovation works a lot better with surfboards. Technology works better in surfing than skateboarding. I don\u2019t think we can beat the wooden skateboard. I think we\u2019re stuck, Dan. [Laughs]<\/p>\n
I\u2019m okay with it. [Laughs]<\/strong><\/p>\n
Me too. I don\u2019t want the skateboard to change.<\/p>\n
Yeah. I love wearing boards in and, when they\u2019re done, I can look at them and the proof is on the board.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Exactly. Everything leaves different marks too like grinds and front feebles. Those are similar marks, but they\u2019re on different sides. Every little mark on your board is a different trick that made it. If you set up a board for one spot and you get razor tail and can\u2019t really skate it anymore, you can see all the front feeble marks on your board or a bunch of smith grind marks or a bunch of lip slides marks. With front tail or back tails, you get a bunch of different marks on your board too.<\/p>\n
Totally. Okay, here\u2019s a question for you. Since you were born into the Fletcher family, did you feel any extra pressure to be good at riding a board of some kind?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I never really felt too weird about that except when I was younger. I never really had too much pressure, but I would think about it and I\u2019d be like, \u201cMy dad is a pro surfer. My uncle is a pro surfer. My grandpa is a pro surfer. My great grandpa is a surfer. My aunt Joyce was the first woman to win the girls tour in surfing. Just thinking about it would freak me out, but they never pressured me too hard. They didn\u2019t really pressure me at all really.<\/p>\n
You found skateboarding was more your thing just naturally?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. I always skated a lot and my dad was stoked on skating. He loves skating and he\u2019d skate a bunch. Where we live in California, the waves are not always pumping, like Hawaii, so my dad would skate a lot and hang out with Jason Jessee and Christian Hosoi and Omar Hassan and Duane Peters and Jay Adams and all those guys. My dad had me skating a bunch too.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s rad. Do you remember if there was a day where you decided that you were going to be a skater, like, \u201cI\u2019m going to do it. I\u2019m going to be a skater.\u201d Or did it just happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n
When I moved back in with my Grandma Dibi and my Grandpa Herbie, I started skating a bunch and I was working at Astrodeck. When I was 21, I was like, \u201cOkay, I\u2019m going to be a skateboarder now.\u201d Stuff just started lining up for me. I\u2019m more happy being a skateboarder. I was never not a skateboarder, but it sounded like a cool job too.<\/p>\n
How old are you now?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I\u2019m 26. My body is getting older now. It reminds me every morning. I don\u2019t care though. I\u2019m down. Sometimes I\u2019ll just cruise around and skate a little bit and then I\u2019ll have a heavy session skating with my buddies, like Alex, who has been living in San Diego, and Tom Schaar who is 17 and Cory Juneau who is 18. I\u2019ll skate for four hours and I\u2019ll be like, \u201cMy back hurts so bad!\u201d I\u2019ve thrown my back out a couple of times. My back and my knees and my ankles hurt so bad and I get so sore. They\u2019re like, \u201cYou need to go back out and surf again.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cOkay, guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you stretch or do yoga?<\/strong><\/p>\n
No. I\u2019m not that old. [Laughs] A lot of people my age do. If I wasn\u2019t stupid and lazy I would. Seeing as how I\u2019m a little ignorant and lazy\u2026 I\u2019m too lazy to stretch. I\u2019ve tried, but working out for me   <\/span>doesn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n
When you surf, that works different body parts than skating.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. I surf a bunch. I\u2019ll go surf for three hours whenever the waves aren\u2019t ankle high. When the waves are good, I\u2019ll surf for four hours.<\/p>\n
Do you surf with your dad and grandpa?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. Sometimes we\u2019ll surf. We want to get a surf trip together and go to the Mentawais or <\/span>somewhere. That would be insane. That would be the sickest surf trip ever – me, my dad, my uncle, my grandpa, John Florence, Bruce Irons, and get a couple of homies like Alex Sorgente and Pedro <\/span>Barros. We could bring some skaters and surfers together. That would be the ultimate trip for sure.<\/p>\n
Definitely. Well, I think we got it covered. Thank you so much for doing this.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Of course, Dan. No worries. Thank you very much. Have a good one.<\/p>\n
\"\"
Greyson Fletcher is the son of surfskate icon, Christian Fletcher, and this frontside bonker off his dad\u2019s board reps the father son connection. Photo \u00a9 Affif<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
JUICE MAGAZINE SURF SKATE STYLE STORY:<\/b><\/p>\n
The influence of surfing on skateboarding has been discussed since the beginning of both, yet we have now entered a new era, where skateboarding has returned the favor with its own unique influence on the surfing world. In order to get to the core of this cross over and to try to define the origins and current state and status of surf skate style, we\u2019ve interviewed some of the most innovative skateboarders, surfers, artists, documentarians, photographers, filmmakers and musicians on the planet. In honor of the great, Shogo Kubo, who once said, \u201cTo me, style is everything…\u201d welcome to our exploration of Surf Skate Style featuring interviews with Aaron Murray, Aaron Astorga, Abraham Paskowitz, Art Brewer, Bennett Harada, Brad Bowman, Brandon Cruz, Brian Brannon, Carter Slade, Chris Miller, Chris Strople, Christian Fletcher, Christian Hosoi, Craig Stecyk III, Darren Ho, Dave Tourje, David Hackett, Dennis Martinez, Dibi Fletcher, Don Redondo, Eric Britton, Garrett McNamara, Gerry Lopez, Glen E. Friedman, Greg Falk, Greg Galbraith, Greyson Fletcher, Herbie Fletcher, James O\u2019Mahoney, Jef Hartsel, Jeff Ament, Jeff Divine, Jeff Ho, Jim Fitzpatrick, Jim Gray, John Van Hamersveld, Jonathan Paskowitz, Josh \u201cBagel\u201d Klassman, Kalani David, Keith Morris, Kirra Kehoe, Larry Bertlemann, Laura Thornhill, Lizzie Armanto, Marc Emond, Michael Denicola, Michael Early, Nano Nobrega, Nathan Fletcher, Nathan Florence, Neil Stratton, Norton Wisdom, Pat Bareis, Randy Katen, Ray Flores, Rob Nelson, Robert Trujillo, Scott Oster, Shane Allen, Shaun Tomson, Shota Kubo, Solo Scott, Stacy Peralta, Steve Alba, Steve Olson, Takuji Masuda, Terry Nails, Tim Curran, Tim Hendricks, Tim Kerr, Tom Groholski, Tony Alva, Wes Humpston and Zach Miller.<\/p>\n
FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #75 AT THE JUICE SHOP\u2026<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SURF SKATE STYLE WITH GREYSON FLETCHER. INTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY. PHOTO BY AFFIF.   Hey, Greyson. What are you up to?  We\u2019re going to Woodward, me and Alex Sorgente. We\u2019re going to do a little mini ramp contest up there. Oh, the mini ramp contest with Ryan Clements. Yeah, it\u2019s the mini ramp thing. You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4027,4028,4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/36-greysonFletcher-nose-tap-on-Cf-board-affif-scaled.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70212"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70695,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70212\/revisions\/70695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}